A moving service has been held to mark 100 years since the Germans sank their own fleet in Scapa Flow.
More than 50 of the 74 interned ships were scuttled in the waters off Orkney to prevent them becoming spoils of war.
The grandson of German commander Admiral Ludwig von Reuter rang a bell recovered from one ship at a ceremony above the wreck of SMS Dresden.
The scuttling, the single greatest loss of warships ever, was seen by 160 children from Stromness on a school trip.
Yesterday their descendants joined a seaborne service to honour 15 Germans who died that day and later in captivity.
Wreaths were laid by senior British and German naval officers before navy divers from the two former foes laid wreaths on the hull of the Dresden.
The ships, anchored in the Scottish bay during 1919 peace talks, were manned by skeleton crews who were not allowed ashore. Crew flooded their vessels by leaving valves open, loosening portholes and smashing pipes.
A senior officer declared that the scuttling “wiped away the stain of surrender”.
Many ships were later raised and sold for scrap. The seven that remain are scheduled monuments and make Scapa Flow Europe’s premier wreck diving site.
